Re:Did Insurance Fire Brigades let uninsured buildings burn?
by P5fRxh5kUvp2th on Monday December 19, 2022 @05:21PM
(#34058575)
stop tilting at windmills,
the question is whether or not the government can force you to pay for a __PRIVATE__ service just for __EXISTING__ within the borders of the US.
There is __NO PRECEDENT__ for this. The closest you can get are things like car insurance where you're required to carry insurance in order to drive on US roads. You can choose not to drive, you cannot choose to "not exist".
That puts this into an entirely different category. The fact that it originally got rationalized as a tax opens a whole different can of worms. Good luck refusing to pay taxes.
Re:Did Insurance Fire Brigades let uninsured buildings burn?
by vkou on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @06:30PM
(#34074397)
I'm entirely willing to accept that it's a bad law (It is, for multiple reasons - unfortunately, the situation without it is even worse), I'm simply drawing the line at claims that it's an illegal law (It's not, it's been pretty thoroughly litigated).
Re:Did Insurance Fire Brigades let uninsured buildings burn?
by P5fRxh5kUvp2th on Thursday December 22, 2022 @08:43AM
(#34093113)
I said unconstitutional, not illegal.
It was also perfectly constitutional, hence the need for that 13th amendment.
You're going to need a better complaint than 'it's unconstitutional', as this is pretty verifiably constitutional. The people who have been empowered[1] by the founding fathers to determine what is, and what is not constitutional have determined that this is constitutional. It's not a matter of opinion at this point.
> carrying private service X is required for you to exist in the united states.
And that's nothing new. Government can compel all sorts of things from you. Showing up to contribute your labour to a jury duty. Involuntary servitude in the military. Taxing the land you live on. Every society - even this society - provides you with privileges, and requires obligations from you.
This obligation has been ruled to be well within the legal framework of this society, and if you don't like it, you should look into passing a constitutional amendment on the subject.
[1] Actually, SCOTUS' powers in this sphere are what's unconstitutional, but we all pretend that they are.